In Lake Bell We Trust

This year's Sundance Film Festival has come to a close, and, among other things, it'll be remembered for an explosion of female talent. There were actresses like Felicity Jones, Juno Temple and Elizabeth Olsen and director Erica Duncan, but it was one of Hollywood's established stars that everyone wanted more of.

Funny woman Lake Bell made her directorial debut at this year's festival with her short film, Worst Enemy staring Saturday Night Live alum Michaela Watkins. The story is best summed up as one woman's journey in Spanx and is a hilarious metaphor for the literal entrapment women face in pursuing beauty.

ELLE: How did you get into acting?LB: I grew up in New York City [and] I was just a precocious two-year-old, who was like, "Me going to be actress one day."

ELLE: Did you say the same thing about writing and directing Worst Enemy?
LB: I had been writing secretly for many years. I have exercises on my desktop of different characters and different scenes that I think are funny. I keep in the side order of things, just in case I want to pull it out and use it for something. So, Wooly, this character in Worst Enemy played by Michaela Watkins, was in my side orders. I had fleshed out her character pretty deeply. So, I strung Wooly's life together and made a narrative with an arc that made sense to me.

ELLE: So, who or what is Wooly's worst enemy?LB: I find it really interesting and funny, this sort of unjustified female insecurity. It's like a tornado of neuroses that manifests out of nothing. It's just totally fabricated by the person. Culturally, I think women are guilty of it right now because we see so many images, all the time. It works on guys, where you're like, "Oh, guys are going to cheat on their wives because they're so exposed to that. They can't help it." I think it's like women can't help but be insecure because they are exposed to so much beauty and images of what you should be. It's all about whatever the new mascara is or whatever it is. You know, it makes you feel that whatever you have is less than, which is smart media and marketing for everybody else, but their turning our ladies into misanthropes.

ELLE: Where does female insecurity come from?LB: I won't say all, but I think it comes from image. Your image of yourself, because it's not just your image in the eyes of men. I have pals that are lesbians, who have insecurities. So, I'm like, "What is it?" It must be—I mean I'm still figuring it out to be honest, I think we all are, but I think the root is some sort of lack of validation within the eyes of yourself.

ELLE: Your film gives women permission to be themselves and laugh at their absurdities, like squeezing into Spanx. Can we look forward to more of this from you?LB: I'm interested in making movies that I like. I don't want to make them for the sake of making them. I want to make movies that I want to see and that I think would be a great and fun experience for everyone involved. I think that's why I'm attracted to writing the whole world for those characters that are really funny, interesting and might be in supportive roles [in other films] but are dynamic and multidimensional. I like that idea as the main character.

ELLE: Sitting down with you, you're nothing like your steely character in It's Complicated—you're fun! Where do you get your playfulness?LB: I mean. Ah, fuck—I don't know. I think growing up my parents were divorced so] my brother and I were like best buddies. And you know, now everyone's fine, remarried and happy—but I did feel like it was me and my brother against the world. We had each other. And I feel like we did a lot of joking around. It was like a real place to go—it was a real safe place.

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